THE RAINFOREST SMELL is so fragrant I can’t help but take big, heaping sniffs to appreciate its scent. But it’s also hot and humid and before long sweat is pouring down my face and my mascara has outlined trails of black ink on my cheek. Matt Adamson, a medium- built gent with a baseball hat, glasses and a salt-and-pepper goatee, leads me down a slick slope where my canvas shoes stick and slip in the mud and dirt splashes on my jeans. So far, I haven’t lost my balance in the muck, which is surprising given that my gaze is riveted skywards towards the tall trees, broad leaves, muscular vines and thousands of panes of glass...Read more.

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Lindsey Hoshaw endured a month on a boat on the high seas to bring us this next story, which appeared today in the New York Times:

The 150-pound piece of a skiff, torn in half and adorned with Japanese characters, was most likely a remnant of the tsunami that struck eastern Japan last year.

This scientific expedition was unusual in many ways, including the fact that it didn’t contain any scientists. Members of the volunteer crew hailed from six countries and lived on a yacht for a month in hopes of finding an array of debris they could photograph and blog about...Read and see more.

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And Ashley Ahearn and the rest of the crew at OPB's EarthFix, give us a report on energy in the Pacific Northwest, including bits on algae, windows, and liquid natural gas: